Online advertising is dominated by Google and Facebook, accounting for more than 70% of all online advertising. Snapchat hopes to get a bigger piece of that pie. This blog post “ How to Optimize Snapchat Ads ,” (Taktical.co, June 5, 2017) describes the potential opportunities and offers a few examples of brands that have successfully advertised on Snapchat. What are some advantages and disadvantages to Snapchat as compared to traditional media (consider television and radio)? What are some advantages and disadvantages to Snapchat as compared to other social media (consider Twitter and Facebook)?

To communicate with target customers marketing managers must make decisions about which media to use: television, radio, the Internet, magazines, social media, etc. Marketing managers will often keep a close eye on the media habits of their target customers. Media habits usually only modestly change from year-to-year. But the evolution of the Internet has resulted in faster change—especially among younger people. This article “ Have Media Habits Changed Among Millennials and Teens? ” eMarketer, June 19, 2017, reports the results of a recent survey of 1173 U.S. Internet users age 13-34. This article compares media usage for teens (age 13-17) and millennials (age 18-34). It also asked questions [Continue Reading …]

In chapter 8 we introduce several concepts and ideas around branding. For example, we define brand equity as “the value of a brand’s overall strength in the market.” We follow that up with an example of Coca-Cola. In 2016, we see that Coca-Cola’s brand equity, as measured by Interbrand, has fallen since we wrote this in the textbook. As sales growth has slowed for the soft drink giant, it decided on a new brand strategy, which it described in a press release as follows: Marking a significant shift in its marketing strategy, Coca-Cola today announced that for the first time, all Coke Trademark brands will be united in one global creative campaign: [Continue Reading …]

About a year ago, B&G Foods bought the iconicGreen Giant brand of frozen vegetables from General Mills. As our chapter 2 “What’s Now?” post explained, the frozen vegetable category has been in decline for at least the last decade. B&G hopes to resurrect the brand and the category. The Green Giant ad below was typical of its promotion for much of the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s. This brandchannel article, “ #TheGiantAwakens: Social Campaign Teases New Jolly Green Giant ” (December 7, 2016) highlights a YouTube video and Instagram posts as part of a contemporary update to the Green Giant. Go to YouTube and search “Jolly Green Giant tv ads” and view one of [Continue Reading …]

In Columbia, a guerilla war has been dragging on for decades. Then the deputy minister of defense thought that maybe advertising could be used to “sell” guerillas on the idea of ending the war and coming home. This CBS News story, “ Advertising to Sell Peace, Not Products ” and accompanying video interviews the man who developed and implemented the program, advertising executive Jose Miguel Sokoloff. Be sure to watch the three sample ads embedded in the article. Also, notice the references to research insights that guided their advertising. What did research tell them might appeal to the target market (guerilla fighters). How do you see [Continue Reading …]

I have enjoyed the wit and wisdom of the marketoonist (AKA Tom Fishburne). In the two cartoon’s you see here (scroll down for second cartoon) along with his commentary, you can see how important it is for marketing managers to provide financial justifications for marketing investments. Unfortunately, this is not always easy for marketing managers to do — recall our coverage of measuring advertising effectiveness in chapter 15. Bonus Chapter 1 digs into the importance of sales analysis, performance analysis, and cost analysis — you can also review Appendix B to read about return on investment (ROI). Explain how three concepts from bonus chapter 1 tie into the [Continue Reading …]

Mary Meeker is one of the most well-known and well-respected tech gurus. Every year Meeker presents her highly anticipated “ Internet Trends Report .” While the 213 slide deck included all kinds of insights about the Internet (and you are encouraged to review it), part of the presentation was particularly critical of online advertising. As you know from chapter 15, advertisers are following people’s “attention” which has moved from TV to online and particularly to mobile devices. Yet advertisers are still struggling to figure out how to break through and grab customer’s attention. Read more about it in “ Mary Meeker is right – most online ads suck ” (recode, June 7, 2016). List three [Continue Reading …]

Where does the FTC draw the line on misleading advertising? Here is a recent example of a recent ad the FTC thought went too far. What do you think? So what makes this ad misleading? You might ask your students what would make this ad misleading. It turns out at least two factors contributed to the FTC’s decision. First, the truck couldn’t actually do what it proposed. Cables hidden in the sand actually pulled the dune buggy up the dune. Second, the sand dune was modified to make it look steeper that it really was. While Nissan claimed the video was meant [Continue Reading …]